Jolt Awards: The Best Programming Utilities

VMware Fusion 5.0 is a virtual machine host designed exclusively for the Mac OS X platform. In addition to running Windows and Linux VMs, Fusion also has the ability to run native Mac OS X virtual machines. While these OSX VMs can't be used outside of Apple hardware-hosted environments, they offer a nice way to sandbox system updates and software patches that, unlike Windows or Linux updates, cannot easily be rolled back. VMware Fusion 5.0 also offers several useful features for running a Windows VM, including full support for 3D hardware-accelerated Windows 8. It also supports the latest Mac OS X features, such as the ability to stream a virtual machine's display output to an AirPlay-compatible device, such as an AppleTV.

At $49, Fusion is also considerably less expensive than its inspired Workstation counterpart, and it provides a superb solution for Windows and Mac developers alike looking to run near native Windows machine performance without having to resort to Apple's Boot Camp.

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